On my usual scan over Facebook, I noticed people posting all these pictures of the Ice Castles in Midway. Well - we had some time and thought we might pep things up and join all the hullabaloo. :)
The day was chilly, but sunny and the ice was definitely a bit soggy to walk on, but the "ice caves" as Steve called them were awesome. The crowds were crazy - since it was a holiday, Monday - family night, everybody was there. We still had a great time.
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| The line was extremely long since it was a holiday and this girl just wanted to walk everywhere... |
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| Waiting with pretzels :) |
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| The boys...anyone interested ladies? Sorry - the one on the left is mine. ;) |
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| Uncles taking a turn walking Rubes around - gotta love uncles. |
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| Grammy time :) |
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| We thought she was the Snow Queen - girls always need pictures with princesses :) |
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| Uncle Thomas in the middle of a brain washing session - Ruby's totally captivated. |
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| Ross insisted Grandpa Stan hold him on his shoulders while we waited - Gramps was a good sport. Oh - also Ross had a meltdown whilst we were putting on his snow pants. He was NOT okay with it. I think his bear hat was very appropriate for his attitude. He got over it though. |
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| An array of princesses presented themselves - although Tinkerbell is a fairy. |
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| Elsa the Snow Queen from Frozen was also there...with a not so pretty wig. |
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| Rapunzel also made an appearance. |
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| Ross was amazed. |
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| After 45 minutes of waiting in line we finally got in! Ruby is wondering what the heck is going on. :) |
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| The ice was pretty awesome. :) |
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| The icicles were dripping like crazy - we were just waiting for them to crash down on us. ;) |
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| An ice throne |
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| Michael still needs to grow into it a bit. ;) |
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| Cute boys |
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| Olaf was there too! |
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| I can't remember what Ross was saying here...something profound I'm sure. |
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| Ahhh!! |
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| At least Steve and I are posing. ;) Fun family pic |
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| We passed the kiddos around as we went. "You're turn!" |
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| These guys have some serious opinions about whether they love Elsa or Rapunzel best. Everyone loves Olaf though. ;) |
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| Busy! |
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| In the ice maze...are we lost? Oh no!!!! |
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| Stuck! |
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| Panic! At least Ross has it together. |
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| He could squeeze his little body anywhere! |
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| Let me out! |
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| Tom still stuck...but he's okay with it. |
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| This guy is so smooth he's like a Zamboni to ice. ;) Yeah - that was a good one! |
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| Hottest couple ever! Look - Steve's even flashing his ring! |
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| Ruby really wanted to lick the ice...we all know how that would have turned out. |
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| I love this picture. It's so fun! :) |
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| I'm making sure it's safe before we enter... |
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| Ruby looks adorable touching the ice...I have no idea what Michael's doing in his photo bomb in the back! |
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| The ice man...? Is that what he's trying to express in this pic? |
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| Ice climber! |
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| Yes mom - it's cold! He is so stinkin' cute! |
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| And this is how it ended. She crashed two minutes after leaving. Too. Much. Fun. |
In other news, Ruby walks like it's no one's business - she has her own swagger that includes her cute belly sticking out, and arms halfway up. She can walk fast too...until she gets a little ahead of herself, but she just pops right back up.
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| Our little Cruella DeVille - loves a Dalmatian print. Cutie :) Thanks Grammy Joanne! |
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| Headbands and bows don't last long these days. I just made her a bunch of cute bows too! |
She likes to say, "Thank-you" a lot too as well as "hello" "happy" (very appropriate for how happy this girl is) and "bye" - she's extremely social and still likes to plop herself right in the middle of everything....which can become quite tricky when you're trying to get a two year old....
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| Startin' it off with Cars. Here we go! |
With Ruby practically on all whole milk now, we're finally settled with holidays and most birthdays out of the way for a while, I decided to buckle down and do it. Today is our first day....ask me in a week if I'm still pepped up. I got his little potty chart sorted, stickers ready, and his M&M jar ready for his instant reward. Getting big boy underwear on him started out with a melt down...but after getting them on, 5 m&m's in his hand and some train playing going, he got over and used to the pants - so used to them that when I went to put a diaper on him for his nap he demanded his Toy Story Woody big boy pants be put on over them. At least he's committed. I've poured juice and water down this kid and loaded him up with pretzels and crackers to keep him drinking. So far on day one we've had three accidents and 5 and one half success (he was on the potty, but it didn't completely make it all the way in). We'll get there. He usually would start peeing his pants and then stop to finish it on the potty. Once he caught on to the fact that he gets to pick an awesome sticker out and put it on his Cars chart AND get an M&M - he was all for hanging out on the potty...like all day. He's the type of kid that once he commits...it becomes his life. The only downer was at bedtime. He immediately used the idea of him needing to use the potty to his advantage. He's a sneaky one that boy. Anyway - wish us luck down this road...the road of more laundry, carpet cleaning, and kids growing up (boo to the last one - or all of them really!).
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| Sometimes watching a show is encouraging... |
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| Picking a sticker out and an M&M for his success! |
Now we're on day three and he's been great at letting us know...going number 2 on the potty is a different learning matter - he'll get it though. He loves to cheer for himself when he's done. I wonder if we cheered ourselves on more in the little things in life we'd be more upbeat people... :)
A few other things. Ruby thinks the mirror is hilarious and enjoys talking to herself in it frequently. She still loves mimicking everything, and has recently found a new love for Ross's monkey he sleeps with. She finds it on his bed and drags it around with her all day saying, "Awwww" as she hugs it and calls it, "Baby" (we're still working on the word, "monkey"). It's ADORABLE. Although Ross has a few issues with her commandeering his monkey - for the most part he's a good sport about it. She's learned "apple" "light" (lyyyyyy) "bottle" and is always saying "Mommy" - I love it!
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| Cutie pie! |
Ross has gotten more obsessed with trains lately. He's always asking to play them (playing planes is his other one). I've found I am simply the train track builder/repairman. It's tricky playing trains when you have a walking one year old who enjoys plopping down in the middle of everything. I pretty much spend train playing time rebuilding tracks and setting up trains while Ross growls whenever Ruby snatches one of his trains or tracks. I think Ruby enjoys her part of playing trains very much. She's gotten pretty good at snatching and getting away as fast as she can.
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| Don't let his lack of smile fool you - he lives for this! It's serious business :) |
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| A rousing game of hide and seek. Can you spot them? |
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| Ross and Rubes had their big brother, little sister shirts on at the same time...we had to have a pic - with their nap time PJ pants on :) |
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| This boy fits the description! |
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| This girl takes her role extremely seriously. |
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| Steve came home one night after a rousing game of Risk with his brothers and cousins RAVING about this Jambalya his Aunt Kaye made for them...I mean he went on about it for days. So did his brothers! So I decided to see what all the fuss was about. It takes a WHILE to make, but it was pretty amazing - and clears your sinuses! I even halved the amount of pepper you put in it. It was scrumptious though. Ruby even loved it. |
Also - living in the bat cave/bomb shelter/underground container, I start clawing at the walls after a day or so of staying in. I found a park that is about a 1/2 mile away from our house - downhill on the way down, uphill on the way back. We decided to take our chances on how snowy the playground would be, but were pleasantly surprised. We were also pleasantly surprised to have some friends show up. Ross and Brielle had a great time throwing pinecones up as high as they could for quite a while. Ruby pretty much just wanted to crawl in the snow. She loved going down the slide with me and Ross though - it was hilarious.
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| I love babies bundled up :) |
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| A scrunchy faced boys :) He's still got the Oregon in him - the sun is too bright! :) |
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| Figuring out the slide |
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| Ross dropped his excavator...they are too adorable. I know I say that constantly, but it has to be said. |
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| Love her baby blues. This girl has 5 teeth now! Three on top and two on the bottom. :) |
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| Ruby was trying to figure out how to get around with all her bulky stuff on and the snow around her. |
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| Throwing pine cones with his new friend, Brielle. She's so cute! |
Steve and I have also been enjoying the fruits of family being around. My parents babysat last weekend while we went on a date to the temple and our beloved Cafe Rio, and this weekend, Steve's parents watched the kiddos while we go on another epic date. YES! Score for us!
We went to our favorite nice restaurant - Cheesecake Factory - waited for an hour to be seated - which led us to wandering around the mall. We headed in to Crate and Barrel where it was confirmed to me that I have zero ideas about a style sense, and Steve and I played the game of guessing the prices of the different furniture and accessories. We found that generally - everything there was $398 - so Crate and Barrel can now be deemed the $400 store. :)
After our never-fail-we-always-get-it avocado eggrolls and chicken bellagio, we waddled away stuffed and debated whether to go to a movie (as we were yawning like crazy...as in it was 9:30 and that's a huge sign that we're old if we're thinking of calling it a night by then). As we drove around, we decided maybe we'd just go home....and then Steve spotted it. Nickel City. We decided to give our youth a try and headed in. It was quite entertaining. I got to play Skee Ball, Steve got to shoot something, we played the car racing game a zillion times (I wasted Steve!), and also Dance, Dance, Revolution...which Steve trashed me at! Apparently he has rhythm and I'm just a mess! We got memorable friendship bracelets with our tickets in order to put aside our losses. We did find the gems Tappers and Q*Bert (which apparently is NOT out of order) from the Wreck it Ralph Movie. Steve was stoked. :) I was hoping they'd have Wreck it Ralph - but no sign of him. It was a really fun date - and it was even more fun knowing grandparents were enjoying some grandkids too. :) Hooray for living close to family!
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| Taking out the terminators. I failed miserably. I should never have a gun in my hands! |
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| Serving drinks is tricky... |
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| Q*Bert |
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| The symbol of our friendship. ;) |
